“I was hard on Elvis Andrus because he was special”

ARLINGTON — It’s no coincidence that Ron Washington will be in town when Elvis Andrus officially announces his retirement on Friday.

Andrus wanted his first manager, who raised him as a player, to be there that day.

“I was hard on him,” Washington, who currently coaches the Los Angeles Angels, said Thursday. “But I was hard on him because he was a very special kid. He came up at a young age and showed great understanding of the game. He knew how to handle the bat. He knew how to run the bases. He was aware of his surroundings. He had the skills to do special things on a daily basis. And I wanted to make sure he did that. During my tenure, I wanted to make sure he learned how to play.”

Andrus will make his retirement official at a press conference Friday afternoon. Washington and former Ranger Michael Young will both be in attendance. Then Andrus will throw the first pitch to Young.

Washington recalled two such examples of tough love in Andrus’ rookie season of 2009.

He said that on the first day he hit ground balls against him in spring training, at one point Andrus signaled that he had enough grounders. Washington called him out, telling him he had a special program he runs with ground balls and to never tell him when he was done. He would be done when Washington was done. Then Andrus went back to shortstop to catch more grounders.

“I threw him another ground ball,” Washington said. “And then I told him we were done.”

Another incident occurred during the 2009 season in which Andrus made a series of last-minute errors on the field, prompting Washington to call Andrus and his veteran mentor Omar Vizquel into his office.

“I told him if he stopped concentrating and stopped making mistakes in the final stages, he would become a seven-inning player,” Washington said. “And you know what happened? He tightened it up. Yes, I was hard on him. Michael [Young] was hard for him. Ian [Kinsler] was hard for him. When he arrived here [in 2011]Adrián was hard on him. But we all wanted the best for him. He was intelligent and talented at baseball. There wasn’t much he couldn’t do.

“And when the game was on the line and he was on the bases – when something had to happen – he made sure something happened. He did things when it meant something. He wasn’t afraid.”

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